{"id":347470,"date":"2026-09-15T16:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T16:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/347470\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T16:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T16:42:07","slug":"new-york-wont-crack-down-on-canada-uk-for-israel-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/347470\/","title":{"rendered":"New York won\u2019t crack down on Canada, UK for Israel sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"

A high-profile 2016 executive order blocking New York from doing business with entities supporting the boycott, divest and sanctions, or BDS, movement against Israel<\/a> does not apply to countries like Canada and the United Kingdom, which are set to boycott products from Israeli settlements, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office said.<\/p>\n

The executive order<\/a>, first put in place a decade ago by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo<\/a>, requires state entities to withdraw any money and assets invested in \u201ccompanies and institutions\u201d participating in BDS activities that target Israel. \u201cIf you boycott against Israel<\/a>, New York will boycott you,\u201d Cuomo said at the time.<\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s administration now says the order won\u2019t affect countries moving ahead with a prohibition on trade with the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. That\u2019s because the state agencies controlled by the governor\u2019s office can\u2019t technically \u201cinvest\u201d in foreign governments to begin with, according to the state Office of General Services, which administers the executive order.<\/p>\n

\u201cForeign governments do not fall into the category of entities that the State could invest in,\u201d the office said in a statement to Gothamist.<\/p>\n

The administration\u2019s interpretation allows Hochul<\/a>, a Democrat who\u2019s up for reelection this year, to sidestep the thorny politics of Israel\u2019s settlements. It comes at a time when Israel\u2019s war in Gaza and support for expanding settlements in the West Bank have drawn significant criticism not only from some foreign countries but from within the Democratic Party, a marked shift from when Cuomo first signed the order.<\/p>\n

There is \u201ca lot more open questioning about what Israel is doing in the region and their relationship with the United States,\u201d said Basil Smikle, a Columbia University professor and former executive director of the state Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

“\u200aShe has to walk a fine line,\u201d Smikle said of Hochul. \u201cIt’s going to require an incredible amount of skill and a lot of groundwork to assuage concerns of constituents that have strong beliefs on both sides of this question. And so that’s really where you get to see her political talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hochul, a staunch supporter of Israel, has kept the state\u2019s anti-BDS order in place since taking office in 2021.<\/p>\n

In 2022, her administration used the order to pressure Unilever, the parent company of Ben and Jerry\u2019s, after the ice-cream maker vowed to stop all sales in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York has no tolerance for discrimination or hate, and I will continue to champion the powerful bond between our state and Israel,\u201d Hochul said in a statement at the time. Unlilever ultimately sold the ice cream company\u2019s operations in the region to an Israeli company, which continued sales in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

But those comments capture a very different time in Israel\u2019s relationship with the American public.<\/p>\n

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> has been a vocal proponent of BDS, and a trio of Democratic congressional candidates won New York City primaries earlier this year in part by criticizing Israel\u2019s conduct in Gaza.<\/p>\n

In a New York Times\/Siena University survey released Tuesday<\/a>, which polled Democrats across the country, 59% of Democratic voters polled said they sympathize more with Palestinians, while 18% said they sympathize more with Israel.<\/p>\n

In a joint statement last week<\/a>, the leaders of Canada, France and the United Kingdom reiterated their support for a two-state solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians and said Israel\u2019s settlements were impeding progress toward that goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cSettlements are illegal under international law,\u201d the leaders said in the statement. \u201cThe UK, France and Canada will therefore take steps to ban the importation of goods from settlements and enforce targeted measures against settlements and those who facilitate them or profit from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nine other countries \u2014 including Denmark, Finland and Sweden \u2014 have also said they intend to restrict trade<\/a> with the settlements.<\/p>\n

In New York, which has the largest Jewish population outside Israel, the politics of this issue remain complicated.<\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s Republican challenger, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, has called the governor insufficiently supportive of Israel.<\/p>\n

Assemblymember Nily Rozic, a Queens Democrat, said that the anti-BDS order could be strengthened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we should look at whether those protections are strong enough and whether there are gaps that need to be closed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A Hochul spokesperson deferred comment to OGS, which declined to answer whether the governor believes any changes to the order are necessary given the action by the 12 countries \u2014 including Canada, which Hochul has consistently defended against President Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Julie Rayman, senior vice president for policy and political affairs with the American Jewish Committee, a nonprofit advocacy group, said she remains confident in Hochul and that \u201chate-based decisions on economic interests will not be tolerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aNew York benefits from engagement with Israel, right?\u201d Rayman said. \u201cAnd I think that at the end of the day, that’s going to be a really crucial part of this calculus.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York is one of more than 35 states<\/a> that took some action against efforts to boycott or sanction Israel over the last decade.<\/p>\n

The actions varied widely, from resolutions condemning the BDS movement to laws requiring that state contractors sign a pledge not to participate in any Israel boycotts \u2014 some of which drew lawsuits from civil liberties advocates.<\/p>\n

Cuomo\u2019s 2016 executive order required the state to maintain a list of companies and institutions participating in BDS activities.<\/p>\n

That list, which is updated every six months, had 11 companies and institutions on it as of June<\/a>, according to the Office of General Services. Most of those institutions had restricted business or investments in the West Bank, much like the 12 countries have pledged to do.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not clear whether New York state agencies actually had any business with the institutions on the list to begin with. In a statement, a spokesperson for the Office of General Services said all state entities have complied with the order, but declined to provide any examples of divestment.<\/p>\n

New York state\u2019s order, meanwhile, does not apply to the state\u2019s biggest investment vehicle: its $309.7 billion pension fund, which pays out retirement benefits to many state and local government retirees.<\/p>\n

The pension fund is overseen by the state comptroller\u2019s office, which is not under the governor\u2019s control and not subject to the anti-BDS order. But the fund has a similar policy of its own, prohibiting investment in companies that are \u201cdetermined to be engaged in BDS activities,\u201d according to Matt Sweeney, a spokesperson for Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.<\/p>\n

But the fund\u2019s policy won\u2019t restrict investment in foreign bonds from Canada, the United Kingdom and other countries that have vowed to sanction Israeli settlements, Sweeney said. He said it applies only to public companies and public equity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A high-profile 2016 executive order blocking New York from doing business with entities supporting the boycott, divest and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-347470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}